After 2 days cooped up in the hotel environs, I have cried “uncle”, turned tail, and beat a retreat back to Tissa, where the bed is free, the ground is relatively level, and there are movies and PUPPIES for entertainment! Very disappointing to have to curtail my work at AnimalSOS, when that week was one of the Absolute Musts & highlights of this whole journey, but I was useless to them, and the environment there (perpetually wet, slippery tiled floors in the pens, treacherous, hole-pocked and uneven ground everywhere else, and 1,000 boisterous dogs) antithetical to healing a sprained ankle… so… I will return after Thailand and make a better show of it. The good news is, after initially issuing an apologetic “no room at the inn” verdict, Kim is reconsidering, and may try to squeeze Eeyore in after all - if so, we will scoop him up (IF we can find him, Inshallah) and take him there as we make our way to Negombo (I fly to Thailand on the 10th).
On the way here yesterday, we did a brief morning safari at Uda Walawe, which is known primarily for its elephant population. Between near-drought conditions and it being morning (NOT the time safari, despite what one might think), we only saw about 9 elephants, all of whom were on the other side of the electric fence demarcating park boundaries, and all of whom were so emaciated and saggy, it was really sad, rather than wonderful, to see. We came across a small gaggle of pea hens, one of whom was so disoriented and unsteady she barely managed (or bothered) to get out of the way. Dinesh teared up, stopped the jeep, and in a highly Irregular gesture, furiously cut a 5 gallon water bottle in half and put the halves out, full of water, on either side of the road (after making the Tracker (ranger) swear he would retrieve the plastic on his next pass through that area). What should be enormous lake and marshlands in Uda Walawe are presently dry, cracked moonscapes, and all the park’s creatures are suffering terribly. Nature, in tooth and claw. Global warming, in tooth and claw. We did drive through an incredible downpour on the way (oh, for the windows left behind in D’s bedroom!!!), so there is some hope of reprieve on the way. Yala National Park is scheduled to reopen its safari season October 15, and when it does, hundreds of people around here will suddenly come to life, have purpose, pay off their shop tabs. It is strange to behold, this seasonal stasis, where everything is put on hold and scores of men seem, for months at a time, to be just Waiting for Something to Happen. I have studied my fair share of post-colonial societies and understand to some degree the effect such histories have on the development of nation states, the character of a nation borne of such relationships, institutions, and power structures. Despite this, I am noticing certain judgements arise in my mind as I observe this stasis from the Outside - a combination, I think, of itchiness and unease with my own prolonged “lack of productivity”, and a deeply ingrained protestant Work Ethic (of which I am no shining example , yet a product of!). I find myself judging what I see as a pervasive passivity and lack of initiative on the part of D and his cohorts - this even as I myself am so disinclined by the intense heat to Do Something Useful (to study my Sinhala course, to work on my CV for upcoming job search), opting more often than not to lie in a limp and stupefied heap under or in front of a fan with my mind evaporating most uselessly! It is the sense that they are waiting to be rescued, while they spend what little money, and what great amounts of time, they have numbing out with drink or weed, cigarettes, youtube, and gossip. I find myself awash with internal dialogs where I can somewhat justify my own relative inertia, (due to my constitution’s lack of extreme heat tolerance and because right now there is little (little, but not nothing!) I can do to advance My Agenda at the moment), while I rail at them “But this is your LIFE! If you don’t Do Something it will NEVER get any better than this!! Why not use that wifi to do a free English (French, German, Swahili, whatever!) tutorial series online, or figure out how to make your website, or SOMETHING other than watch idiotic youtube videos and wrestling matches!!!” I don’t know - I am definitely sympathetic to what I imagine the effects must be of living in prolonged poverty, in a corrupt system, in terms of one’s sense of possibilities and prospects in life, and exacerbated by the dependence on a volatile tourist trade and an unwieldy-seeming socialism… I am reporting here my observations of my own mind,attitudes, etc,as much as anything… just Another Interesting Glance in the Mirror, I guess, as I try to crack the code of the Sri Lankan psyche and comprehend my relationship to it!!! In other news: … the puppies have grown SO much in one week, and now Tissa plays with them sometimes, which is delightful to see as she’s kind of a down-trodden sad sack of a soul! I’m going to ask Rani if we can build a dog run at the side of the house, as the puppies will soon be too big and energetic to stay in The Nest, and they are a nightmare to try to track and control when they are out!!! … people are continuously, and very strongly, advising me NOT to get water on my sprained ankle. a BIG Ayurvedic no-no, apparently, but I’ve no idea why. … Dinesh walked in on me while I was flossing my teeth the other day and was horrified “WHAT are you DOING???” “flossing my teeth” “STOP IT!!! oh, that is VERY BAD…” and walked out as if he could not bear to watch me harm myself in such a manner!!! #onemillionstyles&flavorsofbeinghuman
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December 2016
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